The origin of the park was from the City governing council who "put forth a proposition to plant trees on 20-40,000 square metres on both sides of the Sumskoy road"[1] The idea was that the area would be used for horse riding in a similar manner to the Boulogne Forest.

During the Second World War all the facilities in the park were ruined and thousands of trees were felled, including the city's only cedar grove.

The park features tennis courts, a movie theatre, a children's railway, and an aerial cableway.

At the same time another 12.8 hectares of park land was granted a change of status to enable the construction of residential and public buildings.

This decision by the Council led to considerable public protest from May to July 2010 leading to many arrests and imprisonments.